Tell Him to Stop
by myska-na-mrazu
Summary: The story begins with Loki building a base with his blue-eyed zombies, preparing for the great battle, when suddenly there's a knock on the gate and an ordinary girl comes to ask Loki a question. It's mostly about an unlikely friendship, which may in the future grow into something else, hence the rating.
1. The Girl Who Knocked on the Gate

The sunny day turned the mostly abandoned industrial district into a fairly enticing place. She was grateful to the favourable weather, as she was certain any other kind would render this place creepy and make her turn on her heel without completing her "mission".

She was nobody. There was nothing special about her, apart from apparently being curious and crazy enough to attempt this: go find Loki to ask him a question. What was more, she wouldn't settle for less than an honest answer. Not that she expected this to work. But she had to try.

The sight of the huge red-painted metal door sent her heart racing and sped up her breath. She stopped, leaned against the crumbling white façade of the building she was passing, and took a few breaths with methodical determination. This seemed to work and she finished the walk to the red metal door and knocked three times with her fist, just loud enough for the people inside to hear, while maintaining an air of politeness.

For a minute, nothing happened. Then a man in a non-disclosing military uniform opened the door carefully, aiming a gun at her head. It should have frightened her, but she was well used to the idea that she was not getting out of this alive. Especially if she achieved her goal successfully. She raised her hands in an obligatory gesture.

"Who are you? What do you want?" the man asked suspiciously.

"I'm Adriana. Could I talk to Loki, please?" she said pleasantly. Her voice was childlike, smooth and somehow husky.

"What do you want with him?"

"Please. I'm unarmed, you can check. I'm no threat to you, or him. I just want to ask him something."

Loki was watching the interchange on a screen and eyed the girl curiously. Was she sent? Or was she really this insane to come "ask him a question" just like that? And yet, there wasn't a hint of the "special agent-ness" about her – she was short, thin, pretty enough, though far from beautiful, somewhat unkempt, he would say. Her straight long hair had been blown into disorder by the wind, she had no make-up on, her clothes were decent, but not even trying to look like the latest fashion. He wondered what led that vulnerable creature to his doorstep. What kind of a question could be so important that she was willing to risk being killed for it?

"Let her in," he instructed the guard at the door via coms.

"Are you sure, sir?" the guard asked carefully.

"Search her for coms and weapons, of course. But I would very much like to hear what she has to say," Loki confirmed his initial decision.

There was nothing the guards found on her. She came in completely clean; just an honest, ever so polite and innocent human being. When the guards escorted her to the back room, she looked even smaller than on the camera; petrified but determined. He was sure she would come and plead for her world, for its people he so despised. At the same time, the thought that someone so insignificant, just one individual in the countless masses, would do that, entertained him enough to hear her out.

She was studying him too, and was astonished at how cameras had distorted his looks as well. He was much taller than he had seem, and when he came all the way to her and looked down into her eyes, she felt something very close to drowning.

"So…" he began softly, "what did you come to ask me? That I spare your loved ones?"

"No," she shook her head and took him completely by surprise.

"What, then?"

"I came…" her voice faltered when his stare fixed on her again. She composed herself quickly, though, and finished the sentence: "I came to ask you a question, not a favour."

She was too late, however, he guessed the true reason of her nervousness.

"That is, if you wouldn't mind me asking. I thought I might as well try," she confessed simply.

Loki laughed. The girl was unbelievable. She just marched in there expecting a conversation with him like he was a professor at school she would come to for advice, not a God aiming to conquer her planet for his own benefit. And, what was more, she was the first person in a very long time who didn't give him a disgusted look when she laid eyes on him. She actually found him attractive, not a monster he was usually likened to.

"Sorry, I haven't got time for fangirls," he smiled mockingly.

"Is that what you think I am? A fangirl?" she laughed shortly with a significant portion of bitterness in her words.

"Well, if you're not, your body language is all wrong," he pointed out pleasantly.

"Oh my god," she rolled her eyes. "Just because I get thrilled when I see a beautiful person, doesn't mean my reason can't overrule my instincts."

"A beautiful person," Loki glared at her, certain she had to be messing with him, "really."

"Yes. You're good-looking and you're not all black-and-white like the rest of them," she elaborated. "Now, can I just ask you one question so I can go again in peace?"

"You've asked a lot of questions already," Loki reminded her.

"What do you want, Loki?" she asked a bit more loudly than she had meant to.

"I want for you to ask that stupid question of yours, of course," he retorted.

"That was the question."

"What I want?" he repeated, tilted his head inquisitively. It wasn't quite what he expected. "You want me to share my battle plans with you?"

"No. I want to know what you want. And I don't want to hear how you wish to rule this world as a benevolent god, either. All of that is an outcome. I want to know what you really want," she said, keeping eye-contact bravely with the last sentence, trying to read it from his eyes.

He suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable. His men were still in the room. Maybe he should have had her killed the moment she knocked on the gate. In any case, there was no way in hell he was going to answer that question.

"Lock her up," he ordered his men, who seized Adriana and escorted her into a small room with a barred window, which had long ago served as an office. They locked the door behind them, leaving her to ponder the implications of what she had done and what the outcome might be.


	2. Night Talk

As it happened, she was treated very well. She got food, water, even a blanket as the room turned chilly in the evening. No one was able to tell her why they were keeping her instead of turning her into one of Loki's mindless minions or downright killing her, though. That secret remained Loki's for the time being.

She found a pencil and a few yellowed sheets of paper in a desk drawer and used them to pass the time. Hours went by and Adriana was slowly starting to get used to the idea that this arrangement was going to last for a while. Eventually, she dozed off, and when she woke up, Loki was in the room.

"Did you really think I would answer that question?" he asked softly.

"I thought you could. Given that no one else asked," she shrugged.

"What do you mean?" he frowned.

"No one really cares, do they? You just appear and everyone's like 'oh my god, it's Loki, we need to kill him', and they assume you're dangerous right away…"

"I _am_ dangerous," he reminded her.

"But you didn't have to be," she shrugged again. She wanted to explain in further detail, but wasn't sure how to go about it.

He kept the silence too, just staring at her, trying to make sense of her. She was defending him, and that never happened. People were suspicious of him, scared of him, or they simply hated him and all of them wanted him dead. She was trying to understand, and maybe, just maybe she already did.

"What difference does it make?" he said eventually.

"Yeah, I know. Things happened. Really makes you think what would happen if all mistreated people out there had the power to tear down worlds," she said calmly, and when she caught his look, she added: "I'm not… belittling… what you went through. It's just, you know, I might die because of a family dispute. Seems kinda stupid."

"I'm not here to kill everyone on this planet."

"No, you just want to prove your capability as a ruler," she gave him a slight smile.

Loki laughed in response. "Is that your theory? You thought you already knew the answer and just waltzed in here to test it?"

"It just seemed logical," she shrugged, "that you would want to show your family you're every bit as good as they are. I figured you might want to show them you'd be a better king than Thor, because you know what needs to be done. And if you proved that the Earth would thrive under your rule, which it just might, they would see you are worthy."

"I don't need their approval," Loki countered with determination.

"Maybe not. Maybe you just need your own. And maybe you simply want to rule over _somebody_ and just went on and picked this planet. Either way, it's not worth it."

"What isn't?"

"Trying to take over the Earth. It's not worth it."

"Ah," he beamed, "here we go with the pleading."

"Do I look like I'm pleading?" she smiled back as if this amused her greatly. "I'm just saying, it's more trouble than it's worth. And I should know, I was born on this planet."

"This planet will be mine soon," he assured her. "And when it is, I'll be looking forward to finishing this conversation."

With that, he vanished. His true form, sitting on the corridor floor with his back leaned against the locked door, got up, and summoned his guards.

"She's free to go. Take her home," he ordered them and disregarded their surprised looks.


	3. Post NY

Germany happened. And then New York. And when the dust settled, Adriana received visitors.

They weren't particularly nice. They threw a black bag over her head and took her to a windowless interrogation room, where they fortunately removed the bag, because she was sure she would either suffocate or die of a panic attack if they kept it on.

She found herself sitting on a chair at a desk, and opposite her sat a man in a suit. He looked stern, but his eyes had kindness in them.

"Adriana," he greeted her.

"That's Miss Hájková to you," she corrected him coldly.

"All right," he conceded. "We are sorry for the rough treatment earlier, but I'm sure you understand the need for secrecy."

"I might if you tell me who you are."

"We're S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Of course you are," she rolled her eyes.

"You didn't expect us to ignore the fact that you came to talk to Loki and got out unscathed, did you?" he smiled at her nicely.

"I was hoping you might," she shrugged.

"No such luck, I'm afraid," the man replied. "What you did is rather extraordinary. So either you found a way to manipulate Loki, or you're his follower."

"You really do have the wildest theories," she said as if the man had just confirmed one of hers.

"Enlighten me then," he offered.

"Loki came to start a war and take over Earth. I figured since I was likely going to die, I might as well find out why. So I went to ask him, that's all."

"And you found him how exactly?"

"He was stealing my wifi," she glowered at him nastily.

"Right."

"Look, it was by accident. What does it matter? I thought he would kill me anyway. Or turn me into one of his zombies. If you want to know the reason he let me go, you need to ask him."

"You know, certain parties present at the time seem to recall Loki calling you a fangirl," the man pointed out.

Adriana sighed. "Do the certain parties recall that I protested against that?"

"No, but they recall you calling Loki a beautiful person. You understand how that looks, don't you?"

She had to take a few moments to think of a reply. They were going to take everything she had said to Loki and use it to label her a threat to humanity. It was outrageous and frankly a bit scary.

"He did treat me better than you," she said eventually.

"Yes, I imagine he did," the man nodded.

"Oh, for god's sake," she burst out. "I haven't done anything wrong. And I wasn't some starry-eyed teenager who couldn't keep her hands off a gorgeous villain. Do you people know anything about me? About my history?"

"I believe we know quite a lot, yes," he admitted.

"Then you should know I would rather die than let him touch me."

He paused. They had studied her in great detail, and she was right, her history would suggest reluctance for physical contact.

"What did you talk about later that night, Miss Hájková?" he asked after a minute to shift the uncomfortable weight off the topic.

She shrugged. "I told him that trying to rule over this planet wasn't worth it. He said he would anyway. That was about it."

"Did you really think you could stop him?" the man wondered.

She decided to be honest with him. After all, that usually worked. "Look, I just think that he shouldn't let himself be defined by whatever betrayal he might have lived through. He's more than his rage or revenge. You people never think of that. Someone is driven by desperation, and you… cross them off immediately, and it never even occurs to you that you should try to help them first. I wanted to listen. I don't think I could have helped, but at least I wanted to be fair," she explained.

"Well, being fair is not always a luxury we can afford," said the man, albeit sympathetically. "Especially when it comes to protecting the people of this world."

"I understand your position, but I do believe it's a better approach in the long run."

"And that is your right. Although I would strongly suggest you refrain from any vigilante work in the future," he said.

"Am I free to go now, then?" she guessed.

"Certainly. If you wish," the man assured her.

She did, and since she asked nicely, they were decent enough not to put the bag back over her head but rather blindfolded her carefully.

This interview cost her her job, as she had failed to show up for work on time, but looking back, she was gracious enough to admit it was probably the best thing that could have happened to her.

She would occasionally think of Loki. The news said he was taken back to Asgard to be imprisoned there. She wondered whether he remembered their conversation, and what his view might be now that he lost.

He remembered. And given the result, he thought she was right.


	4. Academic Writing

Several months passed. Then London happened and news came of Loki's demise, bringing about unanimous cheering from Earth's population.

Adriana had returned to university to study law, hoping for better prospects in the future. She wasn't the best of students, but the level of personal pride left within her wouldn't let her get kicked out on purpose. She would often wish she could just get a job like an adult her age was supposed to and stop pretending to be a decade younger, however, a chance of a good job didn't mix well with the useless subject of European Culture she already had a degree in. Besides, law could be fun and a source of countless interesting stories, if only for the universal truth that people were idiots and could make an awesome mess of their lives.

Not that she was evil or wished bad things on others; she just couldn't wrap her head around the sheer stupidity some people were capable of.

Halfway through her second term on a rather fine April afternoon she decided to spend the three-hour break between seminars in a shopping centre, eventually spending a good portion of her tax return money on new clothes and shoes.

When she returned to her car, parked in the rooftop garage, and was about to open the trunk to deposit her bags inside, she was startled by a soft voice coming from the nearby column.

"That's a rather nasty scratch, you know," pointing to the grazed left side of her car.

She looked up, taken aback by the familiar sound, to see a young man coming towards her slowly. His hair was black and slightly curly and his face pale, but lit up by a playful smile on his lips and sparks in his blue eyes. He was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a black leather jacket. For a minute, she wasn't sure whether it could be him, until he spoke again:

"Yeah. Not dead."

"Hello, Loki," she said a little more coldly than he had expected.

"You don't look very pleased to see me."

"I'm just not sure why you'd come to me, of all people…"

"Because you get me. And I need your help," he interrupted her.

"How could I help you, Loki? I'm nobody. I have no special powers, no skills, no money, and I sure as hell don't want to be dragged into the big game again."

His eyes studied her intently. She wasn't saying all that because of a low self-esteem; it was her defence mechanism. She was hiding, and that made him curious.

"I just need a place to stay. Temporarily. Please, Adriana," he asked her.

"Right, so you can plot your rise to power in my living room?" she assumed, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

Loki sighed. "You were right," he said. "Before. When you said conquering the Earth wasn't worth it. I just want to get back on my feet. I can pay you rent if that's what you're worried about," he offered.

"Just to get your bearings?" she looked at him intently.

"Yes," he assured her.

She shook her head in disbelief. "You're such a liar. Get in before I change my mind."

He smiled and happily obliged.

"Only temporarily, ok?" she warned him as they were heading out of the garage. "I have a distinct feeling that having Loki at home is a bit like having a lion as a pet."

He laughed heartily at that comparison.

"So, where are we going?" he asked then.

"I have one more class."

"Can't you skip it?"

"No. Besides, this one is rather fun. You can wait for me somewhere around school. There's a library right next to it," she suggested.

"Right now, I have about a million questions only _you_ can answer," he admitted.

"Seriously? What could you possibly want to know that I do and you don't?" she wondered sincerely.

"This, for example. You're hiding. You're constantly self-deprecating and trying your best to be invisible. But you are so worth noticing," he shook his head in disbelief. "Why are you so keen to be unseen by the world?"

"Because it's easier."

"Than what?"

"Than people having expectations. Than failing and getting scolded publicly. Than getting unwanted attention," she named a few options.

"From men?"

"Especially from men," she nodded.

"Well, it doesn't work on me," he pointed out.

"Would you _stop_ _messing_ with me?" she raised her voice.

Loki gave her a bright smile and raised both hands in a defensive gesture. "Just trying to figure you out," he explained.

"I'm doing you a favour, Loki. You should at least have enough manners not to play with me like that."

"It's so sweet that you expect _me_ to have manners," he smiled.

"I expect everyone to have manners," she retorted.

"You're amazing," said Loki with utmost sincerity.

She was intriguing. So many layers to her and everything just drew him to delve into each one of them, to understand what made her tick. She was an entertaining puzzle to him and he was looking forward to discovering all her secrets. He could make probable outlines and unclear guesses as to what made her this way, but he wanted to know the truth, if only to be proven right in the theories he had concocted while in Asgardian prison.

"You do realise no one else on this planet will help you willingly?" she warned him.

"Seriously, you need to learn to accept compliments without freaking out," he observed.

"No, I don't," she shook her head. "Not from men. And definitely not from you."

"You have issues," he sighed, deciding not to press the matter further, at least for now.

"No one's disputing that."

After that, they were silent until she stopped her car at a makeshift parking lot near the building of the Faculty of Law. It was an impressive example of functionalist architecture at its finest; a monumental mixture of dark bricks and light stone with an equally dualistic history. The first building of the intended future campus of the new university, it was soon taken over by Nazis to serve as the land headquarters of Gestapo. After the war, the building was reclaimed by the university, but the campus never happened and was eventually built around the Medical Faculty in a different part of the city almost six decades later.

The area still managed to gain a status of an educational hotspot. Across the road from the Faculty of Law, there was the brown-tinted-windowed building of the Academy of Sciences, next to which sat the complex of the Faculty of Construction Engineering with its representative main building boasting exquisite neo-baroque style. The beautiful modern building of the Moravian Land Library stood back to back to the Faculty of Law, right next to the massive crescent of the University of Defense. Of the four universities the city had, three were represented in this square.

Adriana directed Loki to the Land Library and went to find her classroom, where a course of Academic Writing awaited her in ten minutes. People tended to hate the subject, but she found it useful. Of course, she was an experienced writer; however, prose and academic papers tended to be very different and she found the latter particularly hard to get used to, even after all the time she had spent at different universities around the world.

She enjoyed this seminar as well, and an hour and a half later, she found Loki waiting for her in the large lobby downstairs.


	5. The Drive Home

Adriana noticed him cast a charming smile at her female classmates, so she put her hand between his shoulder blades and shoved him towards the entrance to the building, saying goodbye to her friends while doing it.

"Ouch," he complained. "Who would have thought you'd have such strength in you?" he teased her.

"You are not seducing my classmates. A) they're my friends and b) they're way too young for you," she scolded him.

"C) you're just a tiny bit jealous," he winked at her. "Ouch!" he shouted again as she smacked the back of his head with her palm.

"What did I tell you about messing with me?"

"Ok," he said apologetically.

It was quite warm in her car from the direct sunlight, so she took off her jacket and started setting the GPS and switched on the radio at the same time.

"Can't you tell your way home?" Loki wondered.

"Oh, this is just for time of arrival," she waved her hand, placed the GPS into a small compartment to the right of the dashboard, not even attaching it to anything, and started the car.

She wanted to use a different route from the city to avoid Friday traffic jams on the motorway, so instead got stuck in a long line of cars before a crossroads at the edge of the city.

"Looks like your plan has failed," Loki remarked.

"And you said you had a million questions only I could answer, so fire away," she offered.

"And you will answer them truthfully?" asked Loki, sounding surprised.

"I don't lie, Loki. And maybe if I tell you what you want to know, you'll leave me alone and so will S.H.I.E.L.D," she shrugged.

"You've had problems with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"They just thought I might be your minion. And I thought you might want to know, so you wouldn't say I didn't warn you if they're watching me and find out you're not dead."

Loki pondered over that for a few minutes. The cars in front of them started moving and before long they passed the crossroads and continued on the road to the north from the city.

"Is that the real reason you were so unhappy to see me?" he asked eventually.

"Pretty much," she admitted.

"Did they give you much grief?"

"No. They were just annoying as hell. And I really don't want to have to explain to anyone ever again that I'm not your fangirl. Besides, I thought it would be fair if you knew, that's all. But Loki," she glanced at him seriously, "I honestly don't want to help you take over the world."

He laughed, and asked for argument's sake: "And if I try without your help?"

"You'll fail miserably like you did last time," she assured him.

"Don't worry, my dear. I plan to enjoy being dead for a while longer," he winked at her. "See what everyone loves so much about this idiotic planet."

"I can live with that," she nodded.

A song started playing and a soft voice began singing in an unusual language. Loki listened with interest. He wouldn't have thought such music would be played in this part of the world. He understood the words, unlike her: they were Icelandic.

"Do you know what this says?" he asked her when the song was nearing its end.

She shook her head. "It's really beautiful. I somehow never got the courage to see the translations, in case I was disappointed."

"It says 'I rose up from the ashes against all adversity, if I could only see your mind, your silver shine'," he translated a bit for her. "Seems rather fitting," he added thoughtfully.

"Only you didn't rise from the dead just to read my mind," she pointed out.

"No, but it seems like a good thing to do at this time," he shrugged. "So, what happened to you? Why the animosity towards men?"

"I don't hate them. I just hate making the same mistakes over and over again. And yeah, I'm scared, cause last time it didn't work out so well. My life's a mess, pretty much. Especially when it comes to relationships, it's just… ridiculous."

"What happened?"

"He thought he would make me love him… by making me sleep with him…" she struggled to find the right words to describe the situation. "Technically, he didn't rape me. Nothing really happened. He just scared me to death."

Loki stared at her. This explained a lot of things. She was one of those people whose world kept crumbling under their feet. She needed to feel in control. And rape was the worst instance of losing control imaginable. No wonder it frightened her more than dying. She must have been terrified at the very thought that something like that could happen to her.

"I just…" she started again, but her voice trailed off. It was very tempting to tell him everything. Still, he was used to being a god and seeing things on the scale of planets and galaxies (or pissing off other gods), and she didn't think her little life would be interesting enough for him.

"Tell me," he encouraged her.

"It's nothing, really. I always fell in love too easily, did whatever a guy wanted because I was grateful for attention. And now I'm sick of that and I don't want anyone touching me, I don't want sex for fun, I want to be…"

'Loved'? She couldn't bring herself to say that out loud. 'Sentiment,' she imagined he'd say.

"Seen…?" he finished for her to her immense surprise. It would seem the understanding of the other one's nature was mutual.

"Yes," she nodded sadly.

"You can't be invisible and expect to be seen, though," he said after another spell of silence.

"No, but I don't want a guy to look at me and…" she paused, lost for words again. "What I want is love that stems from friendship; that is built on solid basis. I don't need to put myself out there for that."

"Yes, you do."

"Not in the sense of dressing up and making up my face and looking as close to perfection as possible," she specified what she meant.

"Is that why you have that professional cover-of-a-magazine photograph as a profile picture on Facebook?"

"You did not just ask me that," she shook her head in disbelief, laughing. "Come on, the great god of mischief does not simply utter the word Facebook. Seriously."

"How do you think I found you?"

"I don't know – magic?"

"Not over a thousand kilometres on an overpopulated planet."

"This is ridiculous."

"I know. That's what happens when I can't live the life I was destined to lead."

"You mean king of Asgard's overlooked brother," she remarked, making him frown.

"I would have been a far greater ruler than Thor. And I seem to recall you leaning towards that opinion yourself," he reminded her.

"Yes," she confirmed. "But greatness always demands sacrifice. You can either treat people like sheep and take care of them and tell them what to do and they will build you beautiful cities and palaces and give you great works of art. Or you can be a humanist and give them power to decide for themselves –and they will kill each other for greed and develop things and become depraved and lazy and then new age savages will appear who are cruel and uncivilised. But there will be freedom."

"Humans aren't ready for freedom. Like you said, they need to be led or they'll kill each other."

"But how do you decide who should rule, who becomes the elite and who becomes the worker? You can't dictate things like that. You can't stop people from thinking. You can't even take away voter's right from idiots because there's no universal way to pick them out. You can't check everyone and give them IQ tests or whatever. And any other way would be unjust, that's the problem."

"Or you could just be their absolute ruler and not ask questions because you know best anyway," he shrugged.

"Yes, but not by waltzing in and saying 'now I'm your king'. Not anymore. You have to have legitimacy. People have to perceive you as the rightful ruler, or they won't follow you."

"Unless you have an army."

"Yeah, but you don't."

"Well, I've got time," he pointed out.

"Why do you want this so badly?" she asked. "Controlling billions of people must be so exhausting! And so many of them are incredibly stupid. Why would you want to bother with all that? Even if you have what it takes, but really, who gives a damn? You can have such a great life without all the hassle."

"It's what I've been told my whole life. You, for example, have been taught that all people are equal, correct?"

"Yes."

"And you still believe that, even though you have doubts now. But what you've been taught for so long can't be taken away so easily, can it? It's deep within you."

"Because I believe it's right."

"And other people believe that objectifying women is perfectly acceptable."

"You do have a point. Right and wrong is quite subjective."

"Well, you have a point too. Don't get me wrong, I understand you. But you asked me a question and I owed you an answer. I want to be king because there was never anything else to do for me. And, like you said, I know what needs to be done."

"I think you should let it go," she said softly. "This frustration will eat away at you and prevent you from being the great man you desire to be."

"And where else can I find greatness in this world?" he asked sincerely, almost like he was tempted to try and give up on being an almighty monarch.

"I'm guessing you have lots of time to find out. And _that_ I can help you with," she smiled.

"I would like that very much," he admitted.


End file.
